The
American Woodland Garden:
Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest
review from
Booklist
9/01/02, used with permission.
"With a fine book on ornamental grasses to his
credit, Darke turns to summoning forth the spirit, beauty, and natural order
of a woodland in the gardens he creates in its image. Darke defines a "Forest
Aesthetic," bringing intensity and passion to his revelations of seasonal
rhythms and the lyric qualities of light occurring in deciduous environments.
Decades spent studying a Pennsylvania locale, Red Clay Creek, form the basis
of a subsequent chapter in which Darke melds an authentic ecological stance
with the desire to create a garden sanctuary. Identifying aesthetic elements
in the most subtle of manifestations, from a tiny dormant bud to dramatic
silhouettes of fallen tree trunks, Darke shares a reverie on nature and observations
of an applicable artistry. As responsible stewards of the land, gardeners
can look to Darke's unorthodox design manual to transcend trite solutions
with a wise and vital philosophy, and with its cache of inspiring photographs,
this is sure to inspire all who garden east of the Rocky Mountains". Alice
Joyce Copyright © American Library Association. All rights
reserved.
